SoS:
If the 'crushed' wire was between the positive terminal and the fuse then
there is nothing to stop a dead short to the case.
Agreed, but to get a short circuit, you need current flow from one terminal
of the battery to the other. Even if one side were grounded before the fuse,
the other side would still be floating, so no current flow. The battery
case itself will be provide isolation to the battery internals and the elt
electronics won't be grounded to dc anywhere on the pcbs. That is, the case
will be floating w/respect to the elt electronics.
In any case, as someone else noted, even if an internal elt wire did burn
through, it would be over in a second or two and should not have anything like
enough energy to start a fire externally.
Not being just b awkward here, but none of the evidence released to date adds
up and there does seem to be an intentional information blackout...